Obesity, climate change and poverty are some of the most serious health, environmental and social issues of the 21st century. Current initiatives to address these wicked issues typically focus on the individual and community, with social marketing being a common tool. However, the effectiveness of social marketing in helping to combat these wicked issues has been mixed at best. We use the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to further our understanding of how macro-social marketing might be used to address the wicked problem of obesity. In doing so, we further conceptualize how formal and informal institutions might contribute to the emerging field of macro-social marketing.